Tuesday, June 19, 2012

UPDATE: Colorado Wildfires, near Fort Collins, CO

by Maggie Sefton

Thank you for all your supportive comments, everyone.I sincerely appreciate them.And I thought I would give you an update on
the Wildfire’s progress near Fort Collins, Colorado.

We do have good news, lots of good news to report, as well
as sad news, too.There are now over
1600 firefighters here in Fort Collins assigned to the “High Park Wildfire,”
and the fire is now 45% contained as of Monday morning, June 18th.Unfortunately, the wildfire has now grown to
over 54,000 acres, and 181 homes have been lost.

But. . .here’s the good news. . .thanks to the bravery of
these courageous firefighters, the majority of all the homes threatened have
been spared.Firefighters did an
unbelievable job of saving homes in neighborhoods all over our canyons.We heard that early after the fire’s
discovery near Rist Canyon Saturday, June 9th,wind-whipped flames shot over a ridge and
advanced down into Poudre Canyon on the other side.This is the Cache La Poudre Canyon which I
mention in the Kelly Flynn mysteries, and it really is a National Wilderness
Area.You can imagine the horror of the
five volunteer firefighters---men and women---who were standing guard over the
little village of Poudre Park.The rest
of the fire station crew was helping fight the fire in Rist Canyon.

Those five firefighters fought that wildfire as it swept
down the ridge in a horseshoe shape, threatening to destroy their homes as well
as their neighbors.They put themselves
between the flames over and over and over again, beating back the two-pronged
fire as it attacked their neighbor’s homes.For hours.Just the five of
them.They did an amazing job.Only a handful of homes were lost.

This week has been filled with stories like that.And with happier stories, too.Whole neighborhoods that had been evacuated
were allowed to return.Their homes
untouched, thanks to firefighters brave efforts.In fact, the vast majority of evacuated
neighborhoods have been able to be re-opened.Traces of the wildfire’s path is visible here and there, in a scarred
hillside.But scarred hillsides can
re-generate.As I mentioned in last
week’s post, wildfires do NOT burn everything in their path.They burn capriciously, here and there, and
leave whole ridges and hills untouched.Houses intact.

The three blazes I saw igniting last Monday morning as I
looked across into Fort Collins from theinterstate were jumped on immediately.The first arrival of the additional Hot Shots firefighters had arrived
and they pounced on those flames, beating them back until they were out.I’ve driven the roads following the western
edge of Fort Collins, and there is no evidence of burned hillsides until the
very northern edge of the city.And only
a few sections of hillsides are blackened.The vast majority are untouched.As I said, here and there.

Alas. . .some of our neighborhoods in Rist Canyon and in
lower sections of Poudre Canyon did lose homes.Rist Canyon (which I call Belleview Canyon in the Kelly Flynn novels)
was the hardest hit, losing most of the Davis Ranch Road subdivisions and the
Whale Rock subdivisions of homes.I have
been in both areas, and there were lovely homes there in beautiful mountain
surroundings.It’s heartbreaking to know
they’re gone.As well as other areas,
dotted here and around those canyons.We
have canyons all over Northern Colorado, large and small.

As
of now, the fire is still burning on the western side of the burn area, where
it is very rugged, steep terrain, no homes, but with plenty of pine bark
beetle-killed trees as tinder.They are
burning fast.So----this fire will be
blazing for quite a while, especially since the high heat (nearly 100 Monday)
and the wind gusts can blow and whip up the flames.Please keep all of us in Colorado who are
fighting wildfires in your thoughts and prayers.We appreciate it.

Wishing you all well....thank you for the personal updates...seeing news reports and hearing from you are two different things. And thank you for all the praise for the fire fighters. They are indeed courageous heros!

How awful that the fires are still raging, and destroying the forests and all that lives in it. I have only recently read a book by Bella Andre in her HotShot series, and really admire those men and women.

Wish you all the best, and I do hope the nasty thunderstorms that are predicted for Holland for next Thursday (when I have an outdoor office outing I wish I could skip) will go your way instead.

Prayers and good thoughts being sent your way Maggie. I know all too well what it looks like with neighborhoods have tons of burned down homes. God bless the brave fire fighters out their battling the flames.